Ex-exec Pleads Guilty He Admits Defrauding Boca Resort And Club

September 14, 1989|By LISA OCKER, Staff Writer

A former executive at the Boca Raton Resort and Club pleaded guilty on Wednesday to racketeering for his involvement in a kickback scheme that defrauded the four-star hotel of as much as $500,000 since 1982.

As part of the plea bargain, Edmund Sansovini, 64, who had been a vice president of the hotel, agreed to surrender to the Palm Beach County Jail on Wednesday to begin serving a 2 1/2-year prison sentence.

He also agreed to pay restitution of $122,080 to the hotel and $10,000 to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for investigative costs.

By Wednesday, Sansovini paid all but $5,000 to the FDLE, which he will pay in monthly $500 increments after serving his prison term, Assistant State Attorney Spencer Levine said.

Sansovini got the money for restitution by breaking a life insurance annuity that he purchased with money derived from the scheme, his attorney, David Roth, said.

The restitution paid the hotel represents an amount close to what Sansovini gained from kickback deals made with travel agents, Levine said.

Sansovini and Emery Braccini, Boca Raton Resort and Club sales manager, defrauded or attempted to defraud the hotel of amounts ranging from $3,579 to $74,906, court records say. The total amount embezzled amounted to more than $500,000, and they attempted deals that would have netted another $250,000, Levine said.

Neither Braccini, nor the four travel agents identified as participating in the scheme, have been charged, Levine said. He said the investigation is continuing.

He called the scheme ``ingenious`` and described the way it worked this way:

Sansovini and Braccini directly booked meetings and conventions at the hotel but falsified documents to make it appear that travel agents had referred the conventioneers. The two then falsely billed the hotel for 10 percent commissions for the travel agents, who then kicked back half that amount to the defendants.

Sansovini worked for 14 years as the hotel`s vice president for sales and marketing before leaving in 1986, two months after hotel officials began an internal investigation.

A client`s inquiry about a fraudulent commission tipped off other hotel executives, who contacted the FDLE in June 1987.